Heifetz As I Knew Him [Hardcover]

Ayke Agus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2001

Ayke Agus came to Jascha Heifetz as a violin student in his master class at the University of Southern California; after he made her the class pianist she soon became his private accompanist and ultimately his assistant and confidante. Her book is a loving yet unblinking testimony to a unique relationship between an aging master and his disciple. Always a difficult person, Heifetz imparted not only his art but his every belief and idiosyncrasy. The greatest violinist of the 20th century was a genius who was also insecure and unreasonable; in many respects the former prodigy had never had to grow up. This memoir is an extraordinary story of a truly unique friendship, told with honesty, understanding, and devotion.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As often happens with biographies written from a personal point of view, this book tells us more about the author than the subject. Ayke Agus was born in strife-torn Indonesia, the oldest child in a large, authoritarian, repressive family. Musically very gifted, she studied both violin and piano and was exhibited from an early age as her country's most promising violin prodigy. Her mother was a great admirer of Jascha Heifetz; little Ayke grew up listening to his records and made him her musical and personal idol. She escaped her restrictive life by going to America to study, and eventually entered Heifetz's master class at the University of Southern California. He quickly pressed her into service as class pianist; soon, she became his personal accompanist and increasingly indispensable companion. This is the story of their symbiotic love-hate relationship, which lasted until his death 15 years later. During that time, she found out that her idol had feet of clay and never forgave him for it.

There is a certain fascination in discovering the weaknesses and foibles of famous people. Yet this portrait of the great Jascha Heifetz is not really a "warts and all" account, but rather one that's "all warts." It depicts him as demanding, controlling, manipulative, tyrannical, sadistic, inflexible, narrow-minded, suspicious, reclusive, and, as his health declined, increasingly erratic, unpredictable, and irrational. When Agus met him, he had already retired from the stage, but still played chamber music privately with friends and students, and he did not stop playing for himself until almost the end. He poured a lot of energy into his master class. According to Agus's sometimes enlightening, sometimes primitive description, Heifetz's manner of teaching--he had no method--was intensely concentrated, but unremittingly, often unrealistically, demanding and despotic, pedagogically and personally.

But it's his relationship with the author herself that naturally takes center stage. Heifetz very soon added musical and domestic duties to her services until Agus spent virtually all her time at his beck and call, finally doing everything for him, even after she got married and became a mother, from running his household to administering his eye drops. She claims it was entirely due to her coaxing and assistance that he resumed work on his unfinished transcriptions. In return, he taught her a lot about making, performing, and arranging music. They exchanged stories about their lives, and she felt a bond in their both having grown up as prodigies (to whom he developed a lifelong aversion). Agus concludes that, like her, Heifetz was exploited by his parents, but unlike her, he was spoiled as well, and she speculates that this made him "a superannuated, insecure, and immature child," unable to form lasting relationships, craving but alienating friends. She discreetly avoids discussing his marital and family life. Not surprisingly, the sections about herself are written with the most natural immediacy; elsewhere, her style is often clumsy, with forced American colloquialisms, shallow pseudo-philosophical reflections, and pseudo-psychological analyses. There is a note of condescension, almost of contempt, in the way she portrays her tarnished idol, while underlining her own self-sacrificing loyalty, which she calls "putting up with him."

As he got older, Heifetz became profoundly depressive. He underwent a serious shoulder operation and suffered many increasingly dangerous falls. An intensely private person, he lived alone even when his health was failing, and Ayke Agus apparently took it upon herself to cope with all his problems. The reader wonders: should she not have informed his children of his condition before the final crisis? And why did she stay with him when his demands became ever more unreasonable, his behavior more abusive? She says she was held captive by her early, incurable hero-worship of the man and the artist, and by the music they made together. Yet her account reads like an act of catharsis, if not revenge. --Edith Eisler

From Publishers Weekly

Remarkably, there is no up-to-date biography of the preeminent violinist Jascha Heifetz (1901-1986), so this nicely written and perceptive account of the 15 years Agus spent with him at the end of his life will have to fill the gap for now. Agus, a young Indonesian woman who, as a violin student in her native land, had been brought up on the virtuoso's recordings, applied for the master classes Heifetz conducted at the University of Southern California upon her arrival there at the end of the 1960s. Recognizing her excellent piano skills and highly accommodating nature, Heifetz decided to take her on as his accompanist and general factotum for the rest of his life (he died in 1986, sick, lonely and virtually forgotten). Agus gives a fascinating account of Heifetz's remarkable and rather chilling personality: a complete control freak, he would accept no excuses for less than perfection; he despised new ways of doing things; and he kept even close friends off-balance with sudden mood swings, silly practical jokes and unkind remarks. Agus, brought up to be self-denying, was endlessly patient and forgiving with him, but one of the fascinations of the book is seeing her gradually learn to cope with him as an equal. His penetrating musicality and the whole process of musical pedagogy, as well as the intricacies of accompaniment, are revealed with exemplary clarity. The great merit of her patient scrutiny is that Heifetz eventually comes to seem strangely admirable, if frequently wrongheaded and bizarrely eccentric, and Agus's solitary death is thus more affecting than one would expect. Illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: Amadeus Press; First Edition edition (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157467062X
• ISBN-13: 978-1574670622
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,031,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply amazing - like Heifetz!, March 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Heifetz As I Knew Him (Hardcover)

This book served for me as a rare inspiration in a world where one hears nothing but bad news and pessimistic ideas. I am a violinist myself, and I have always been awed by the recordings that Heifetz had left for us. Yet, as with all people who are known under public eyes, I never knew what kind of person he was, who was the man who was behind the juicy slides, powerful musical personality, and amazing virtuosity. This book quite coincidentally came into my hands at the right time - I had been quite unsatisfied with some of my recent concerts that I had given, and, being a student with ungodly amounts of homework and exams to take, was beginning to lose a sense of direction and determination. I asked myself, "is such personal struggle, isolation, and desolation worth the beauty and immortality of music?" By reading this, I found out that personal and professional struggle was mundane - especially to people like Heifetz. To find the balance between Triumph and Disaster, to deal with them equally is what Heifetz had done all his life, and he learned it the hard, painful way. It has allowed me to reflect and to introspect, and have a second look of what this obssession of us musicians really is. To put a cherry on top, it illustrates a very, very touching story between him and the author, Ayke Agus - it is impossible for the reader to not be deeply moved, to feel the isolation and pain of Heifetz. I recommend this book without the slightest hesitation to any musician, or music lover.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not a biography, this is a master class., August 20, 2005

By 

William J. Finn "wjf88" (Sarasota Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heifetz As I Knew Him (Hardcover)

First, please dispel previous reviewers comments that too much of this book is about Ayke Agus. Her story is pretty much in one chapter. The rest is her first hand recollection of Heifetz in his last 15 years.

This is no boring biography. You can read that in Bakers. This is a fascinating book. Over a chapter is devoted to Heifetz's teaching methods. It is really interesting to read this part if you are a violinist.

There is no name-dropping. You won't read about Heifetz vs. this or that. This book is an intimate look at Heifetz the person as much as anything. It is not so much meant to be critical as simply to be fair. Heifetz is not painted in any moral terms so much as he is described as a real human being.

In fact, the book simply is very candid about a musician who may well have been the last of his kind. If you are interested in Heifetz, this is clearly a "must read".

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Violinists and Music Lovers!!!, June 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Heifetz As I Knew Him (Hardcover)

This book was absolutely wonderful. I found it quite inspiring to read about who the man was behind the name Heifetz. It has made him more human in my mind, and ultimately more endearing. Before, I could not imagine that a person who played so close to perfection could be real. Agus does a fabulous job in giving us a glimpse of the "realness" of Heifetz.
I have ordered copies of this book for several of my friends already. I even talked about it in my graduation speech! What else can I say... it's just a great book!